U.S. DELAYS TEST TO AVOID KOREA TENSIONS

Missile launch set this week is postponed ‘to avoid any misperception or miscalculation’

WASHINGTON 
The United States has decided to delay a long-planned missile test scheduled for this week out of California “to avoid any misperception or miscalculation,” given tensions with North Korea, a senior U.S. defense official said on Saturday.

The unusual precaution by the United States follows a barrage of hostile rhetoric from North Korea — including the threat of open war — that has created jitters in South Korea’s financial markets.

It also came after reports in the South that Pyongyang, under its 30-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, had moved two medium-range missiles to a location on its east coast.

A White House official said on Friday it would not be a surprise if the North staged another missile test. At the same time, officials have said there are no signs Pyongyang is gearing up for war, such as large-scale troop movements.

The U.S. decision will delay a test of the Minuteman III intercontinental missile, scheduled for this week out of Vandenberg Air Force Base along the Southern California coast.

“This is the logical, prudent and responsible course of action to take,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. official said the test had been unconnected to “anything related to North Korea” and added another test launch could be expected next month. The United States remained prepared to respond to any North Korean threat, the official said.

Analysts are looking anxiously ahead to April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder and the grandfather of its current leader, Kim Jong-un. The anniversary is a time of mass celebrations, nationalist fervor and occasional demonstrations of military prowess.

North Korean authorities have told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday — after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month.

Still, staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite the appeal.

Most countries saw the appeal to the missions as little more than strident rhetoric after weeks of threats by North Korea to launch a nuclear strike on the United States and declarations of war against the South.

But Russia said it was “seriously studying” the request.

Most Korea watchers believe Kim is a rational actor who understands his military is no match for Seoul and its U.S. ally and that straying too far from historic North Korean practices could jeopardize his own political survival.